Student initiative saves 200 cases of paper in Rochester

ROCHESTER — Spaulding High members of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) presented the findings of their yearlong paper conservation project to Rochester School Department Superintendent Mike Hopkins Thursday afternoon.

The SEAC project enabled the school to use over 20 percent less paper in 2009-2010 compared to the previous school year. With 640 cases of paper used last year, the group estimates 200 fewer cases will be used this year. One case of paper contains 10 reams of paper, with one ream holding 500 sheets of paper.

The most significant measure the group took to conserve paper was to take recycled pieces of paper with one printed side and one clean side and use that paper in the library printer. Most of the paper was taken from the teacher's room at school while some was also culled from recycle bins.

"When a student prints information it's automatically from Drawer 1 and it prints on the one-sided paper," said senior Paige Tanner. "So, it's not wasting paper. It's just reusing it."

Those using the printer have the option of using the recycled paper from the first printer drawer or clean paper from a second drawer.

SEAC adviser and science teacher Pat Gaudet said the library project took some getting used to for the students and faculty but believes the changes have made a huge difference.

"When we first started they used a ream a week," said Gaudet. "We're recycling a ream a week."

Some other measures were used by the group, who found teachers and students across the school were picking up on the message to conserve and recycle paper during the year.

"We told people to use paper out of the recycling bin just for scrap paper instead of using a clean sheet of paper," said senior Rebecca Dascoli.

"Besides copying on two sides, a lot of teachers have chosen to use each piece of paper more wisely," said science teacher and SEAC adviser Chris Schadler, who offered an example of teachers printing multiple quizzes on one sheet of paper if possible.

"There's less and less paper in the teacher's room because more teachers are using both sides of the paper," Gaudet said.

Schadler said several people around the school told her at the beginning of the school year "in no uncertain terms" that what SEAC was doing could not make a difference in terms of paper consumption, and she was happy to prove them wrong.

SEAC was able to calculate the savings for this year into a dollar figure of $3,712 based on what the school's paper budget was for the year.

The group hoped they can spread their methods to other schools in the Rochester district within the next year.

Hopkins came away impressed with the efforts of SEAC and said he will push for the school system to try and consider recycled paper sources when it comes to purchasing paper in the future.

"This is something we need to focus on," he said. "When you make as many copies as we have, just that makes a huge difference."

Deputy principal Rob Seaward, who will be taking over as principal July 1, is eager to work with SEAC going forward on more possibilities to reduce the amount of paper used by the school.